Chris Coons: ‘The President Would Like Nothing More than To Fire Mueller’

RUSH EXCERPT: 
BLITZER: "Yeah, lots of changes among the senior staff, including Gary Cohn, the head of the national economic council. He’s now gone, as well. Let me ask you about this “New York Times” report that if the president were to pardon Flynn or Paul Manafort, he was floating that idea, at least his lawyer, John dowd, was floating that idea to their respective lawyers, would you view that potentially as obstruction of justice?"
COONS: "Well, Wolf, that would really depend on under what circumstances that was offered. If there was an offer of a pardon in order to induce those two individuals, Manafort and Flynn, to refuse to cooperate with the special counsel, I think that would be important evidence of a corrupt purpose of an intent to try and obstruct an ongoing investigation. The president does have a fairly unlimited pardon power. There has never been an attempt by a president to pardon himself. That is something that’s an unresolved question. And I think it would have to be part of a larger investigation into obstruction of justice, but we already know that that’s what special counsel Robert Mueller is, in part, investigating, is a number of efforts by the president to impede the investigation by special counsel Mueller. So if, as reported in “The new York Times,” this was something offered to these two in order to induce them to refuse to cooperate with the special counsel, I do think that would add more substance to the obstruction charges."